A few years back (2010) The Checklist Manifesto highlighted how many industries and professions, where doing things right is critical, use checklists.
The book of course is encouraging us to use checklists…but for our faith, really?
That feels a lot like “law” versus “grace”. Further, the reality is that any checklist God has, I will of course fall way, WAY, short of completing.
However we also know that God’s Word tells us that we should not go on sinning.
Why do I bring this up?
Because much of Proverbs looks like a long list, you might say, a checklist.
Today, Proverbs 19 starts with the poor: “Better is a poor person who walks with integrity…”
Later in verses 4, 6, and 7 it highlights how people treat both rich and poor.
I found myself going back, verse-by-verse, through chapter 19 and asking—if the choice was being poor, or what each verse was offering—would I choose to stay poor.
Let’s use verse 9 as an example:
9A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.
So, as I read this verse, I asked myself, “If lying helped me not be poor, would I lie?” The second half of verse 22 answers that question, “
22What is desired in a man is steadfast love, and a poor man is better than a liar.
That is when it dawned on me: checklists.
I have gone through all 29 verses of this chapter, doing two checklists. First, I looked at each verse through the lens of being poor. Sometimes that lens worked, other times it did not.
Second I simply read all 29 verses, verse-by-verse, as a checklist, asking, where was I following Proverbs, where am I tempted to drift, and where am I blatantly ignoring Proverbs counsel.
The point is not to live under the Law, but rather do a spiritual inventory for the purpose of going deeper with God; making it personal.
Proverbs implores us, with its long and varied pearls of wisdom, to make it personal—to steadfastly love the Lord.
I encourage you to read again Proverbs 19, verse-by-verse, and ask yourself the same questions—praying that the Holy Spirit convicts you—and orders your steps.